PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies. Lecturer and researcher at the University of Málaga (Spain). Translator. Interested in different aspects of interpretation (the hermeneutical task), from its history to its applications. Address: Facultad de Filosofía y Letras Universidad de Málaga E-29071 Málaga (Spain)
Hermēneus. Revista de traducción e interpretación, 22, 2020
We may intuitively be aware of certain representations of literary works, active in collective im... more We may intuitively be aware of certain representations of literary works, active in collective imaginaries. Some of these representations leave traces in Spanish language newspapers, which, concerning One Thousand and One Nights, convey three different images of Shahrazad, the main character, and consequently of the whole work —the wise woman, the sly woman, and the banal woman. The question is whether these representations have a factual basis, on the one hand, in the original text of the work, which is part, in its original Arabic Islamic context, of the genre known as adab, i.e. miscellaneous artistic prose, and, on the other, in different translations into Spanish and other languages. After classifying the different versions according to the image of the main character displayed, the origin of the banal representation is looked for in sources other than the book, provided that the former has nothing to do with the meanings supported by the reading of the latter. We conclude that the translators in general have played a secondary role in the making and transmission of the misrepresentation, and that there has been more than a single discourse on the book in the Hispanic area.
Las distintas actitudes de los traductores ante el poema con que comienza una de las historias de... more Las distintas actitudes de los traductores ante el poema con que comienza una de las historias de Mil y una noches se ponen en relación con dos hechos relevantes que tuvieron lugar en las décadas centrales del siglo xx: la labor de traductores académicos y la interpretación psicoanalítica de la obra. Ambos favorecieron tanto el respeto a la integridad del texto como la apreciación de la estructura general de la obra. Se examinan hechos e hipótesis relativos a 1) la naturaleza narrativa de las Mil y una noches, 2) sus traslados a varias lenguas en los tres últimos siglos, 3) la retraducción de los clásicos y 4) el carácter histórico del fenómeno traductor. Palabras clave: Mil y una noches, retraducción, clásicos, historia, narratología, texto, psicoanálisis.
The completeness of the original text in retranslation (on a poem in One Thousand and One Nights) The different attitudes of the translators toward the opening poem in one of the stories in One Thousand and One Nights are linked with two relevant facts which took place during the mid decades of 20th century, namely the work of academic translators and the psychoanalytic interpretation of the book. Both favored the respect for the integrity of the original text as well as the appreciation of the general structure of the book. Facts and hypotheses relating to 1) the narrative nature of the One Thousand and One Nights, 2) its translations to other languages in the past three centuries, 3) the retranslation of the classics, and 4) the historical nature of the translational phenomenon, are discussed.
Salvador Peña y Juan Jesús Zaro (eds.): 'Traducir a los Clásicos: transformaciones y entornos', Granada: Comares, pp. 167-185, 2018
RESUMEN A comienzos del presente siglo se publicó una amplia selección, traducida al castellano, ... more RESUMEN A comienzos del presente siglo se publicó una amplia selección, traducida al castellano, de la obra poética de materia vínica debida a Abu Nuwás, poeta abbasí, muerto a comienzos del siglo IX, en Bagdad. Antes de eso, su obra había sido ya recibida a través de tres vías: las antologías generales de poesía árabe clásica traducida, los ensayos críticos o históricos que prestaban atención a esta, y las versiones de otras obras que recogían poemas de Abu Nuwás. La acogida indirecta a través de esta tercera vía se produjo gracias a la presencia del poeta bagdadí en Mil y una noches, como personaje destacado de varias historias. Estas pasaron a formar parte de Il fiore delle mille e una notte, el film de P. P. Pasolini, que se tradujo asimismo al castellano para su exhibición comercial; de modo que también el cine sirvió de vehículo al recibimiento indirecto de Abu Nuwás. Después de precisar hasta qué punto es genuina la obra poética que en Mil y una noches se atribuye a este, se compara el tratamiento que a los poemas del bagdadí se da en la magna obra narrativa árabe y en la película italiana, respecto de la fidelidad al discurso sustentado por los poemas originales. Se examina, pues, lo que ocurre cuando un clásico es incluido en otro clásico.
De Homero a Pavese: hacia un canon iberoamericano de clásicos universales. Zaro, J. J. & Peña, Salvador (eds.). Kassel: Reichenberger., 2017
Entre 1954 y 1955 se publicó en México la que se declaraba primera traducción completa al castell... more Entre 1954 y 1955 se publicó en México la que se declaraba primera traducción completa al castellano de las Mil y una noches. La firmaba Rafael Cansinos Assens, un prestigioso hombre de letras, ajeno al arabismo académico universitario. Dicha versión fue saludada por el gran conocedor de la obra maestra árabe en el ámbito del castellano: el argentino Jorge Luis Borges, quien se declaró, en más de una ocasión, admirador del resultado de Cansinos. Al cabo de una década dos editoriales publicaron en Barcelona sendas nuevas versiones debidas a bien asentados profesores universitarios de la Universidad de Barcelona. Y, desde que aparecieron, personas cercanas al arabismo barcelonés comenzaron a dirigir ataques a Cansinos, imprecisos al principio, pero que se fueron sustanciando con el paso del tiempo. En el presente estudio se muestra lo infundado de algunos de tales ataques, y se ponen de manifiesto algunos de sus indudables méritos. Con todo ello se ofrecen datos de interés para el estudio de los procesos que llevan a una traducción a la condición de canónica, además de suscitar cuestiones relativas a la responsabilidad de los traductores ante la labor de quienes los han precedido.
De entre los procesos de recepción mundial de las Mil y una noches, el producido en el ámbito ibe... more De entre los procesos de recepción mundial de las Mil y una noches, el producido en el ámbito iberoamericano ha sido uno de los más sobresalientes. Se ha extendido a lo largo de, al menos, nueve siglos; ha afectado a varias lenguas, diversas sociedades y Estados; ha dado lugar a buen número de traducciones y adaptaciones; ha ejercido una profunda influencia artística, y generado algunas de las más relevantes indagaciones sobre la obra misma y la naturaleza del narrar. A pesar de ello, dicho proceso sigue sin estudiarse con la extensión y detalle que merece.
Among the world processes of reception of One Thousand and One Nights, the one pertaining to the Ibero-American realm (roughly the Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries) has had a striking significance. It has lasted for at least nine centuries; it affected several languages, societies, and states; it prompted numerous translations and rewritings; it left a deep artistic impact, and it produced some of the most important elaborations about the work itself and the very nature of storytelling. Nevertheless, this process has not been studied with the detail and extension it deserves yet.
It is an over-simplification to maintain that there is and have been a single Islamic ideal of th... more It is an over-simplification to maintain that there is and have been a single Islamic ideal of the attitude of mankind towards God. Negative theology (tanazzuh) and 'théosis' (ta'alluh) are examined here, as two relevant instances of such heterogeneous conceptions.
Appart from its frequent occurrences throughout the Qur’ânic text, the term Amr Allâh, or al-Amr ... more Appart from its frequent occurrences throughout the Qur’ânic text, the term Amr Allâh, or al-Amr when referred to the godhead, has been approached from an essentialist paradigm which tends to regard it as a symbol or a holy entity by itself. So considered, the term Amr Allâh has been at the very core of what may be called ‘transcendental linguocentrism’ in several trends of Islamic thinking, around sixth century AH / twelfth century CE. The term and its implications are explored in a wide range of discourses, in particular (1) the Almohad discourse, (2) the Ash'arite conceptions of the uncreatedness of the Qur’ân as well as the ethical principles, and (3) Islamic cosmologies; taking into account parallel notions in different religious of philosophical traditions from outside the Islamic realm.
XIII Congreso Nacional de Numismática, Cádiz, 2009.
The Berber dynasty of the Zirids, the rulers of the Taifa kingdom of Granada (Spain), issued seve... more The Berber dynasty of the Zirids, the rulers of the Taifa kingdom of Granada (Spain), issued several series of dirhams that reveal a prominent feature —the lack of any metrological pattern. We stress the fact that the Zirids never issued real coins. This claim is viewed from a broader double perspective: the numismatic history of Western Islam and the common space of the Islamic medieval world. As a result of our study, we maintain that the historian must distinguish between two different policies in numismatic issues, depending on whether the implementation of metrological patterns allows us to speak of real coins or not. Of the latter, the numismatic issues of the «party-kings» of the Taifa-states are an outstanding instance.
XIII Congreso Nacional de Numismática, Cádiz, 2009.
The study of four examples of square silver coins permits us to add four new unregistered items t... more The study of four examples of square silver coins permits us to add four new unregistered items to the numismatic catalogues of the Almohad, Mu’minid, Marinid and Nasrid issues. On the other hand, the four mintmarks under examination show the range of problems posed by these epigraphs on Almohad and post-Almohad coins: (1) ambiguous reading, (2) different names of places involved, (3) unknown names of places, and (4) an unexpected place name on a particular coin within its historical framework.
How the 16th century official translation of the Nasrid motto, 'La ghalib illa Allah', has acted ... more How the 16th century official translation of the Nasrid motto, 'La ghalib illa Allah', has acted as a powerful model for translations of Islamic texts.
Hermēneus. Revista de traducción e interpretación, 22, 2020
We may intuitively be aware of certain representations of literary works, active in collective im... more We may intuitively be aware of certain representations of literary works, active in collective imaginaries. Some of these representations leave traces in Spanish language newspapers, which, concerning One Thousand and One Nights, convey three different images of Shahrazad, the main character, and consequently of the whole work —the wise woman, the sly woman, and the banal woman. The question is whether these representations have a factual basis, on the one hand, in the original text of the work, which is part, in its original Arabic Islamic context, of the genre known as adab, i.e. miscellaneous artistic prose, and, on the other, in different translations into Spanish and other languages. After classifying the different versions according to the image of the main character displayed, the origin of the banal representation is looked for in sources other than the book, provided that the former has nothing to do with the meanings supported by the reading of the latter. We conclude that the translators in general have played a secondary role in the making and transmission of the misrepresentation, and that there has been more than a single discourse on the book in the Hispanic area.
Las distintas actitudes de los traductores ante el poema con que comienza una de las historias de... more Las distintas actitudes de los traductores ante el poema con que comienza una de las historias de Mil y una noches se ponen en relación con dos hechos relevantes que tuvieron lugar en las décadas centrales del siglo xx: la labor de traductores académicos y la interpretación psicoanalítica de la obra. Ambos favorecieron tanto el respeto a la integridad del texto como la apreciación de la estructura general de la obra. Se examinan hechos e hipótesis relativos a 1) la naturaleza narrativa de las Mil y una noches, 2) sus traslados a varias lenguas en los tres últimos siglos, 3) la retraducción de los clásicos y 4) el carácter histórico del fenómeno traductor. Palabras clave: Mil y una noches, retraducción, clásicos, historia, narratología, texto, psicoanálisis.
The completeness of the original text in retranslation (on a poem in One Thousand and One Nights) The different attitudes of the translators toward the opening poem in one of the stories in One Thousand and One Nights are linked with two relevant facts which took place during the mid decades of 20th century, namely the work of academic translators and the psychoanalytic interpretation of the book. Both favored the respect for the integrity of the original text as well as the appreciation of the general structure of the book. Facts and hypotheses relating to 1) the narrative nature of the One Thousand and One Nights, 2) its translations to other languages in the past three centuries, 3) the retranslation of the classics, and 4) the historical nature of the translational phenomenon, are discussed.
Salvador Peña y Juan Jesús Zaro (eds.): 'Traducir a los Clásicos: transformaciones y entornos', Granada: Comares, pp. 167-185, 2018
RESUMEN A comienzos del presente siglo se publicó una amplia selección, traducida al castellano, ... more RESUMEN A comienzos del presente siglo se publicó una amplia selección, traducida al castellano, de la obra poética de materia vínica debida a Abu Nuwás, poeta abbasí, muerto a comienzos del siglo IX, en Bagdad. Antes de eso, su obra había sido ya recibida a través de tres vías: las antologías generales de poesía árabe clásica traducida, los ensayos críticos o históricos que prestaban atención a esta, y las versiones de otras obras que recogían poemas de Abu Nuwás. La acogida indirecta a través de esta tercera vía se produjo gracias a la presencia del poeta bagdadí en Mil y una noches, como personaje destacado de varias historias. Estas pasaron a formar parte de Il fiore delle mille e una notte, el film de P. P. Pasolini, que se tradujo asimismo al castellano para su exhibición comercial; de modo que también el cine sirvió de vehículo al recibimiento indirecto de Abu Nuwás. Después de precisar hasta qué punto es genuina la obra poética que en Mil y una noches se atribuye a este, se compara el tratamiento que a los poemas del bagdadí se da en la magna obra narrativa árabe y en la película italiana, respecto de la fidelidad al discurso sustentado por los poemas originales. Se examina, pues, lo que ocurre cuando un clásico es incluido en otro clásico.
De Homero a Pavese: hacia un canon iberoamericano de clásicos universales. Zaro, J. J. & Peña, Salvador (eds.). Kassel: Reichenberger., 2017
Entre 1954 y 1955 se publicó en México la que se declaraba primera traducción completa al castell... more Entre 1954 y 1955 se publicó en México la que se declaraba primera traducción completa al castellano de las Mil y una noches. La firmaba Rafael Cansinos Assens, un prestigioso hombre de letras, ajeno al arabismo académico universitario. Dicha versión fue saludada por el gran conocedor de la obra maestra árabe en el ámbito del castellano: el argentino Jorge Luis Borges, quien se declaró, en más de una ocasión, admirador del resultado de Cansinos. Al cabo de una década dos editoriales publicaron en Barcelona sendas nuevas versiones debidas a bien asentados profesores universitarios de la Universidad de Barcelona. Y, desde que aparecieron, personas cercanas al arabismo barcelonés comenzaron a dirigir ataques a Cansinos, imprecisos al principio, pero que se fueron sustanciando con el paso del tiempo. En el presente estudio se muestra lo infundado de algunos de tales ataques, y se ponen de manifiesto algunos de sus indudables méritos. Con todo ello se ofrecen datos de interés para el estudio de los procesos que llevan a una traducción a la condición de canónica, además de suscitar cuestiones relativas a la responsabilidad de los traductores ante la labor de quienes los han precedido.
De entre los procesos de recepción mundial de las Mil y una noches, el producido en el ámbito ibe... more De entre los procesos de recepción mundial de las Mil y una noches, el producido en el ámbito iberoamericano ha sido uno de los más sobresalientes. Se ha extendido a lo largo de, al menos, nueve siglos; ha afectado a varias lenguas, diversas sociedades y Estados; ha dado lugar a buen número de traducciones y adaptaciones; ha ejercido una profunda influencia artística, y generado algunas de las más relevantes indagaciones sobre la obra misma y la naturaleza del narrar. A pesar de ello, dicho proceso sigue sin estudiarse con la extensión y detalle que merece.
Among the world processes of reception of One Thousand and One Nights, the one pertaining to the Ibero-American realm (roughly the Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries) has had a striking significance. It has lasted for at least nine centuries; it affected several languages, societies, and states; it prompted numerous translations and rewritings; it left a deep artistic impact, and it produced some of the most important elaborations about the work itself and the very nature of storytelling. Nevertheless, this process has not been studied with the detail and extension it deserves yet.
It is an over-simplification to maintain that there is and have been a single Islamic ideal of th... more It is an over-simplification to maintain that there is and have been a single Islamic ideal of the attitude of mankind towards God. Negative theology (tanazzuh) and 'théosis' (ta'alluh) are examined here, as two relevant instances of such heterogeneous conceptions.
Appart from its frequent occurrences throughout the Qur’ânic text, the term Amr Allâh, or al-Amr ... more Appart from its frequent occurrences throughout the Qur’ânic text, the term Amr Allâh, or al-Amr when referred to the godhead, has been approached from an essentialist paradigm which tends to regard it as a symbol or a holy entity by itself. So considered, the term Amr Allâh has been at the very core of what may be called ‘transcendental linguocentrism’ in several trends of Islamic thinking, around sixth century AH / twelfth century CE. The term and its implications are explored in a wide range of discourses, in particular (1) the Almohad discourse, (2) the Ash'arite conceptions of the uncreatedness of the Qur’ân as well as the ethical principles, and (3) Islamic cosmologies; taking into account parallel notions in different religious of philosophical traditions from outside the Islamic realm.
XIII Congreso Nacional de Numismática, Cádiz, 2009.
The Berber dynasty of the Zirids, the rulers of the Taifa kingdom of Granada (Spain), issued seve... more The Berber dynasty of the Zirids, the rulers of the Taifa kingdom of Granada (Spain), issued several series of dirhams that reveal a prominent feature —the lack of any metrological pattern. We stress the fact that the Zirids never issued real coins. This claim is viewed from a broader double perspective: the numismatic history of Western Islam and the common space of the Islamic medieval world. As a result of our study, we maintain that the historian must distinguish between two different policies in numismatic issues, depending on whether the implementation of metrological patterns allows us to speak of real coins or not. Of the latter, the numismatic issues of the «party-kings» of the Taifa-states are an outstanding instance.
XIII Congreso Nacional de Numismática, Cádiz, 2009.
The study of four examples of square silver coins permits us to add four new unregistered items t... more The study of four examples of square silver coins permits us to add four new unregistered items to the numismatic catalogues of the Almohad, Mu’minid, Marinid and Nasrid issues. On the other hand, the four mintmarks under examination show the range of problems posed by these epigraphs on Almohad and post-Almohad coins: (1) ambiguous reading, (2) different names of places involved, (3) unknown names of places, and (4) an unexpected place name on a particular coin within its historical framework.
How the 16th century official translation of the Nasrid motto, 'La ghalib illa Allah', has acted ... more How the 16th century official translation of the Nasrid motto, 'La ghalib illa Allah', has acted as a powerful model for translations of Islamic texts.
Index:
Presentación
Manuel Acién Almansa: El Estado
Salvador Peña & Miguel Vega: Iraq en las acuñ... more Index: Presentación Manuel Acién Almansa: El Estado Salvador Peña & Miguel Vega: Iraq en las acuñaciones y monedas andalusíes Maribel Fierro: Entre Bagdad y Córdoba: centro y periferia en el mundo del saber islámico (siglos III/IX-VI/XII) Joaquín Bustamante: De Bagdad a al-Andalus: las ciencias naturales Juan Pedro Monferrer: Ex Oriente lux: la llegada a al-Andalus de un género literario desde Bagdad Juan Miguel Puerta Vílchez: El humanismo filosófico árabe: Iraq y al-Andalus Salvador Peña & Juan Pablo Arias: Filología, lingüística y buenas letras en Málaga (sobre la contribucuón andalusí a la obra iniciada en Iraq) Luis Miguel Pérez Cañada: De traducciones y embajadas
Mil una noches. Antología, tr. Salvador Peña Martín, Barcelona: Karwán, 2020
First pages of a selection of 'Alf layla wa-layla' (One Thousand and One Nights) translated into ... more First pages of a selection of 'Alf layla wa-layla' (One Thousand and One Nights) translated into Spanish.
La traducción de la literatura árabe contemporánea: Antes y después de Naguib Mahfuz, ed. by Miguel Hernando de Larramendi & Luis Miguel Pérez Cañada, Cuenca: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (Escuela de Traductores de Toledo), 2000, 139-149.
'El trujamán: revista diaria de traducción' (Madrid: Instituto Cervantes), Feb 4, 2011
First religious, then racial, and recently cultural restraints in the field of Islamic studies an... more First religious, then racial, and recently cultural restraints in the field of Islamic studies and Arabic translation.
Ethno-geographical markers in the translated title of books and pictures coming from North Africa... more Ethno-geographical markers in the translated title of books and pictures coming from North Africa and the Middle East.
'El trujamán: revista diaria de traducción' (Madrid: Instituto Cervantes), May 3, 2012
Contemporary Arabic literary texts (Mahfuz's) translated into Spanish from a previous English tra... more Contemporary Arabic literary texts (Mahfuz's) translated into Spanish from a previous English translation.
Uploads
Palabras clave: Mil y una noches, retraducción, clásicos, historia, narratología, texto, psicoanálisis.
The completeness of the original text in retranslation (on a poem in One Thousand and One Nights)
The different attitudes of the translators toward the opening poem in one of the stories in One Thousand and One Nights are linked with two relevant facts which took place during the mid decades of 20th century, namely the work of academic translators and the psychoanalytic interpretation of the book. Both favored the respect for the integrity of the original text as well as the appreciation of the general structure of the book. Facts and hypotheses relating to 1) the narrative nature of the One Thousand and One Nights, 2) its translations to other languages in the past three centuries, 3) the retranslation of the classics, and 4) the historical nature of the translational phenomenon, are discussed.
Among the world processes of reception of One Thousand and One Nights, the one pertaining to the Ibero-American realm (roughly the Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries) has had a striking significance. It has lasted for at least nine centuries; it affected several languages, societies, and states; it prompted numerous translations and rewritings; it left a deep artistic impact, and it produced some of the most important elaborations about the work itself and the very nature of storytelling. Nevertheless, this process has not been studied with the detail and extension it deserves yet.
not. Of the latter, the numismatic issues of the «party-kings» of the Taifa-states are an outstanding instance.
framework.
Palabras clave: Mil y una noches, retraducción, clásicos, historia, narratología, texto, psicoanálisis.
The completeness of the original text in retranslation (on a poem in One Thousand and One Nights)
The different attitudes of the translators toward the opening poem in one of the stories in One Thousand and One Nights are linked with two relevant facts which took place during the mid decades of 20th century, namely the work of academic translators and the psychoanalytic interpretation of the book. Both favored the respect for the integrity of the original text as well as the appreciation of the general structure of the book. Facts and hypotheses relating to 1) the narrative nature of the One Thousand and One Nights, 2) its translations to other languages in the past three centuries, 3) the retranslation of the classics, and 4) the historical nature of the translational phenomenon, are discussed.
Among the world processes of reception of One Thousand and One Nights, the one pertaining to the Ibero-American realm (roughly the Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries) has had a striking significance. It has lasted for at least nine centuries; it affected several languages, societies, and states; it prompted numerous translations and rewritings; it left a deep artistic impact, and it produced some of the most important elaborations about the work itself and the very nature of storytelling. Nevertheless, this process has not been studied with the detail and extension it deserves yet.
not. Of the latter, the numismatic issues of the «party-kings» of the Taifa-states are an outstanding instance.
framework.
Presentación
Manuel Acién Almansa: El Estado
Salvador Peña & Miguel Vega: Iraq en las acuñaciones y monedas andalusíes
Maribel Fierro: Entre Bagdad y Córdoba: centro y periferia en el mundo del saber islámico (siglos III/IX-VI/XII)
Joaquín Bustamante: De Bagdad a al-Andalus: las ciencias naturales
Juan Pedro Monferrer: Ex Oriente lux: la llegada a al-Andalus de un género literario desde Bagdad
Juan Miguel Puerta Vílchez: El humanismo filosófico árabe: Iraq y al-Andalus
Salvador Peña & Juan Pablo Arias: Filología, lingüística y buenas letras en Málaga (sobre la contribucuón andalusí a la obra iniciada en Iraq)
Luis Miguel Pérez Cañada: De traducciones y embajadas